The GeM eMarketplace is a free channel to market which will provide you with the opportunity to easily sell to GeM users and gain new accounts that should increase your business with the sector. In addition you will receive payments within five days and have no risks of bad debt.

Yes; GeM is available to all UK higher education institutions and members of the regional purchasing consortia. GeM offers a quick and easy route for buyers to purchase contracted goods and services. GeM is only open to contracted suppliers and they should see their business increase as off contract spend is reduced

The existing emarkets are only used by around 50% of the universities and very few of the FE colleges. GeM makes the benefits of an eMarketplaces available to around a further 60 universities as well as FE colleges so will be one of the largest sector based eMarketplaces.

Yes. GeM has a range of functions that are attractive to all buyers. We anticipate that institutions using other eMarketplaces might also use some of the functionality of GeM alongside their existing eProcurement system. For example contract information, Request for Quote and price comparisons.

Yes. GeM is part of bigger eMarketplace managed by cloudBuy (formerly@UK PLC) and once you are set up on GeM you can also set your company up to trade with other customers outside of GeM. For more details please contact cloudBuy by emailing support@cloudBuy.com

The site is provided free, there will be costs from your payment service provider associated with setting up and running an eMerchant account. Extending your relationship with cloudBuy may incur additional charges.

Yes. You will need to prepare a priced catalogue of goods and services in an Excel format that will be hosted on GeM. You will then be able to manage any product and price changes on-line to update your catalogue and will receive email orders from GeM.

If you already have an eMerchant account, it can be a matter of days. All you have to do is provide us with an Excel priced catalogue of your contract items and then set yourself up on GeM. If you need an eMerchant account this normally takes between four and six weeks.

The PSP market is a competitive one. There are small costs associated with an eMerchant account and we recommend that you get more than one quotation from different providers. Your bank may be able to help. The advantages of receiving payment by purchase card outweigh these costs.

GeM catalogue formats are extremely flexible. You may still be able to provide a catalogue…. even for services. Even if your products or services are bespoke you will still be able to trade using the request for quote option.